


Let You Down (6ft)

by ride_the_dinos



Series: Welcome to the Fairgrounds [3]
Category: DCU, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Buried Alive, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Panic Attacks, Whump, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:41:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27094474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ride_the_dinos/pseuds/ride_the_dinos
Summary: Jason’s not the one in the coffin this time.
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Jason Todd, Stephanie Brown & Jason Todd
Series: Welcome to the Fairgrounds [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1952311
Kudos: 35
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	Let You Down (6ft)

**Author's Note:**

> Whumptober Prompt: “Buried Alive”

“Fuck  _ fuck,”  _ The shovel is out of Jason’s hand before he even realizes he’s throwing it. He begins frantically shoving at the dirt around the latches. 

His hands are shaking. His body is shaking. It  _ hurts _ . Fear tastes thick as gasoline on his tongue. 

It seems like hours before he can finally get at the latch, before he can finally wrap his fingers beneath the seam. The others are doing the same at the other end of the casket. 

There’s lights, neon red and blue, washing the world in chaos above their heads. Paramedics. There’s no sirens, Babs must have called them in. 

They rip the latches off and in the next breath Jason is heaving the lid up. 

Dirt rains down into the casket, landing across pale skin and a ratty purple hoodie, sticking to sweaty blonde hair. Stephanie’s eyes are closed. Her cheeks are pale. She’s not moving. 

Jason’s hands are on her face, on her neck, begging for anything,  _ any _ sign that he wasn’t too late. He doesn’t recognize the words coming out of his own mouth, just that his throat hurts and his face is hot and he can’t see properly. 

A hand, cool and clammy, wraps around his wrist. 

“Sh-shut’p...red.”

Bright blue eyes squint dizzily up at him and he chokes out a strangled, “ _ Steph- _ ” before he’s pulling her into his grip, wrapping his arms around her limp body. He’s shaking so bad she can probably feel it down to her own bones. 

He can feel hands on his shoulders, his arms, but he ignores them and shoves his face into Stephanie’s tangled hair. She smells like damp earth and sweat and fear but he can feel her heart beating beneath his grip and he can feel her breath against his neck and suddenly he’s aware that he’s weeping like a child. 

“Sorry ‘m sorry I’m...I can’t-”

“It’s...it’s okay,” she croaks close to his ear, “it’s okay. You found me, Jay. I’m alive.”

“Fuck Steph  _ fuck…”  _ he can’t fucking breath. He can’t unlock the grip he’s got around her. He can’t open his eyes. Can’t handle the sight of the interrupted soil and dirty casket and there was blood on the pillow and he can smell it in her  _ hair- _

“ _ Jason _ you have to let go. Let her  _ breath _ ,” a voice orders. 

The hands on his arms grow stronger and he’s really shaking now. 

“Fuck get him off-“

He can’t feel his hands. 

“He’s hyperventilating-”

There’s blood in the casket she’s  _ hurt _ .

“...et paramedics down here…”

She could have  _ died- _

“...elp me grab he…”

The hands pry them apart and she’s gone and he’s bowing over his own knees, eyes screwed shut as he claws at his own burning lungs. The smell of the earth overwhelms him and the last thing he knows is another warm body slipping in front of his, hands on his face as he breaks through the coffin in his mind. 

…

His body  _ aches _ .

He’s still shaking. 

He’s wrapped in a metallic shock blanket.

His face is wet. 

“...Jason?”

He swallows past a swollen throat and winces, forcing his head up.  _ Fuck _ he hurts. 

“You back with me?”

He blinks, taking in the blurry black and blue form in front of him. A warm hand comes up to rest against his forehead and he leans into it, closing his eyes. 

His chest stutters and he opens them again, refusing to go back to that dark, damp nightmare that exists in too many places. Those memories have been pressing at his skull since the second he discovered what had happened. They’d been fueling the forest fire of panic spreading through his marrow for the past three hours. 

The grave is twenty paces to their left. 

He can still feel the dirt under his fingernails. 

“Stephanie?” He croaks. 

“They just left, they’re taking her to the hospital. Checking on her lungs.”

His chest stutters again and he swallows past the panic, “t-take me to her. I need to. . . I need to see her.”

“Hey, it’s okay, Jay. We’re going in a minute. I need you to take some deep breaths, okay?”

Jason doesn’t want to do anything right now. He needs to see Stephanie’s face. He needs to  _ know- _

“No, come on, like this,” Dick grabs one of his shaking hands and presses it firmly against his own armored chest. It takes a minute for his brain to catch on to the rhythm but when he finally does Dick rewards him with soothing words and a gentle hand running along his arm, up to his shoulder and back down again. Up, down. In, out. Over and over until he can see clearly again. 

He shrugs the blanket off, shoving weakly at Dick’s hands, “I have to see her Dick, I have to make sure she’s okay-“

Dick frowns, concern evident even through the mud-streaked domino still plastered to his face. 

“Yeah okay, come on.”

**Author's Note:**

> Time isn’t real we live in a simulation :) 
> 
> (Oops what I MEANT to say is sorry its late I still plan on completing the whumptober list ily all stay safe out there <3)


End file.
